Dear family,

   So this week the email situation is a little crazy, so if I don't email you back today, that is why, We got less time today. This week has been really good. We met this great girl, her name is Katrina but she goes by KP. She is so sweet and is really excited to have us come and visit her. We can't wait and I am really looking forward to teaching with her. she's golden! :) 

   We had a batism on Saturday, it was this Investifator thatthe elders were teaching. he is really cool! He is looking forward to serving a mission in a while now that he is baptized. He is really cool guy! 

  Next Sunday we are having this fireside for Bro and Sis Walker in our ward. They are serving a mission in the Hamilition Temple. They are so beloved and highly thought of in the community. We are playing (sis Saunders and I) in the fireside and singing and we are really looking forward to it. They invited lots of people to come and this is going to be a really good missionary opportunity that is for sure! 

  I was thinking a lot this week about our life before this earth. And I was pondering the role of agency. Agency is so important. It's so important that we all stood up for and protected our ability to have agency in our pre-earth life. And now we get to use agency here on earth.  its hard to be teaching people and you see them use their agency to reject the gospel, but that agency is something I fought a war in heaven for, and I am reminded of how important agency is to us. May we all use our agency as our Heavenly Father would have us exercise it. 

  Oh! Funny joke! My Companion told me a story about her explaining how Adam got his wife Eve to this little boy. That she was made from Adam's rib. He then went runnning for a bit and came back saying "oh no! My Rib is hurting... I think I am having a wife!" hahaha :)

 I love you all! Have a great week! 

Sister Sudweeks

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Something must be done

Dear Family,

   Hello! I hope this finds you all well! I am doing very well, a little cold, but nothing major. I am sad because I have been taking my vitamins pretty religiously, but I suppose they are making the cold ten times less worse than it could be :)

   We had District meeting last week with President Kezerian. It was so good! He really is so nice. He said something that I found really insipiring, and it was about this meeting he went to titled Something Must Be Done. This meeting was for missionary work in the church, and the title naturally got him nervous... I find this statement so insipiring because as President Kezerain was telling us, we can't sit on our bottoms waiting for something to be done. We must just go and do. We want to have better prayer and we need to take the actions to do so, not just sit and wait for it happen. I want to have more member involvment in the work, then I need to take the actions to do so. Truly if Something must be done, and we need to just go and do it.

   Funny story, we had dinner the other day with a member. We were waiting for her to bring it to our flat, and then we finally found her number and callled. She asked what was up and we tried to ask about dinner without making her feel bad if she had forgotten, and she said "Oh! That is what that was for. I thought I had signed up to answer a questionaire!" Haha. She was really kind though and took us out for dinner and fed us Tai food. She was so nice!

   We had stake conference too this weekend which was awesome! I love it so much! Tame and Tamara came too and it was just awesome! Something I really liked was what Sister kezerian mentioned about her friend who was able to be in one of the church productions. She was told she had such an important part and was asked to stand in a part of the scene and not to move, later she was asked to move. She felt bumbed that she wasn't doing her importnant part, because she was now off stage. But she decided to be happy and visit with the other people standing there. While she was doing this she met this man, who she found out was playing the role of Christ. It wasn't until she left the Lime light so to speak that she fouind christ. I feel this is the same way for us too. Its the moment that we leave our thinking of Me or the Me mindframe, that we can grow closer to Christ.

   Another thing that happend was that President Kezerian and Sister Kezerian sat sdown and talked with Tame, tamara, and us. Tame had a question and it turened into a lesson with President and SIster KEzerian. This reminded me that just like President Kezerian did even though he was super busty, he took time for the one, just as the Savior does. Somthing that was talked about was reading the BOM, getting a blessing, and praying. He mentioned how he and sister Kezerain prayed together morning and night and the strenght that brings. I was thinking about that and in 2 Nephi 32:9, I realiazed why that is improtant, for us to pray. We can pray for ourselves nad others, but its so much more powerful when we pray for eachother with eachother, It's when we do this, that we are truly concencrated by the Lord, because he can then take all that we pray for, and when it's something the Savior would also pray for (for we pray in his name John 15:7) then will our prayers have a more powerful effect to concencrate us and those we pray for.

 I love you all! Keep the faith!

Aroha,

Sister Sudweeks

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Miracles :)

Dear Family,

   Thanks for all the emails! I am sorry if I don't get to respond to you all personally, times limited, but send me your addresses then if I don't get to you I will send you a letter :) This week has been really good. We had some cool expereinces with our investigators. Tamara has a set date for marraige! We are so excited! Because here in NZ you get more money for being single than you do for being married, so we have been working a lot with her getting her excoted to get married. It was really neat beczuse we have seen God working in her to help her know she is going to be okay financially. She even came to church this Sunday! Which is awesome because last time we talked she said shes would some wwhen she is ready. She is so mature though. She only 21 but so mature. Tonight we are going to get her to stop smoking! A fun thing for us: Tamara is pregnant and we saw her Saturday adn she was a little upset because she was craving bacon and eggs and she didn't have any and they couldn't buy any, so Sister Saunders and I bought her some and dropped it off telling her we had way too much in our flat. She was so excited :) Then on Sunday we had her say the prayer and she thanked God in the prayer for us bringing her bacon and eggs. It was really sweet and made us smile :) Though the Elders were a funny as they protested after the prayer, why didn't we get any?!!?!? 
  yesterday we had a really powerful lesson with Kuini and Taylor. We taught them the Restoration. We were wondering how we would address her concerns, we know what they are, but we only know because her mum told us, and so we were trying to figure out if we should just address them or wait for her to tell us. But as we know Heavenly Father knows everything! :) I was bearing my testimony and Heavely Father took over and through his spirit I started giving an experience to her and telling her how much God loves her. It was really neat because as I was speaking I could feel God working through me, and it was so cool to see Kuini regconize the truth of what I was speaking in her eyes. Heavenly Father really is mindful of us and all that have a concern about. 

  Antoher cool thing. So in Ether 15, it talks about Corintumer and how he began to regconize his wrong doings and to feel sorrow. But he refused to be comforted. In Moses 7:44 it talks about Enoch who was also sorrow and also didn't want to be comforted but he chose to allow that comfort to be given to him. I found these two verses really powerful because Corintumer dies and Enoch lives. the difference between their two outcomes was that one chose to be comforted and the other didn't. This made me really think what it means to be comforted, and I came to the realization that it can mean to repeant and be forgiven. I would hope that we all would be as Enoch and be comforted or repeant and be forgiven, no matter how big or small something is we have done, its better than the fate Corintumer suffered. 

  My companion said something I really liked. Fill yourself with so much good you don't have time for anything else!  This is so true! I know as I have done this as a missonary I don't have time for sorrowing or anything like that because I am doing good and filled with Joy. 

   If you haven't read the August Engisn yet you should it is so good! :)

   I'm learning some Maori! It's been fun. One of the families we teach knows Maori and so after or before lessons her kids sing us a Haika and teach us a word or too. One day maybe they will teach us the Haika too! :)

  Keep pressing forward and God bless you this week! I love you all and I hope you keep having a wonderful week! 

Kakite(goodbye)! And Ahora(Love),

Sister Sudweeks

p.s.

I started driving this week!!!!! :) Wasn't too bad at all! Sister Saunders says I am pro :) I still get turned around getting in on the other side of the car though, and its hard ebcause I now have a bulge of car on the left rather than the right but other than that its great! :)

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My first Assignment!

Dear Family,

  Kiaora! :) I have been assigned my first area! I am serving in the Masteron area, Upper Hut Zone. :) It's really nice here and everyone is so kind. My companion is Sister Saunders! She is really nice and is from canada.  We are white washing the Masterton area and it has been a very different expereince, but a good one. We are thankful the Elders have us some of their investigators to teach as it has helped make things a bit easier as we try to find our own investigators. We are teaching to Tame and Tamara who are really awesome! They already have a baptismal date and we are just trying to get them to stop smoking. Theya re alomst there andw ea re expetcing to see miracles any day now! :) We have aour bikes now too, and they are super sweet. The Elders rode our bikes home the other day for us, as it was raining and so we drove the car (the elders have been so good to use and have really been great gentleman. They are both fro Utah Elder Christensen and Bearnson). They likened our bikes to corevets. :) Mine is white and has a leaf design on it... very fitting for me I think :)

   Thursday the Releif Society presdient's husband died. He was very loved by ther ward members and we were privlaged to go and see his viewing. It was under the Maori tradition which they have the body in the hosue and sleep there with their belvoed family member for a couple of nights. They also eat lots of food. For a LDS /maori tradition, the viewing is more of a sad/happy socail event. With the Plan of Salvation, everyone is not so sad about the persons's passing. It was really neat for use because we got to really meet the ward memebers there.

    so something neat! For training we went over how to get someone to pray,a dn then later that day went and taught this family how to pray! It was really neat because we saw the Lord's hand in that preparation. He helped me as I was practiing before hand to know how best to help the little kids in the family know more about how to pray. We were so blest and it is so true, the Lord will let you know what to say if you first study it and obtain it from reading!

   The church is true! Help the missionaries in your area by giving them names of people to visit, its so much easier to find people through member invlvment. :) Truly we are missionaries full time to teach, but we are all full time missioanries to find people to teach :)

I lvoe you all!

Sister Sudweeks

   

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